[phillian]

As soon as I saw this title I was going to post the Snopes rebuttal, but you beat me to it.

A non-tech family member will send this in an email chain at least once every six months along with some variant on this message: "OMG THE SKY IS FALLING, OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IS POOP!?!!" (All caps used for quote truth/ accuracy).

[nitrogen]

A statement being contradicted on Snopes isn't automatically rendered false. The education system, in at least some locations and some subjects, is indeed declining, based on the statements and experiences of several public school teachers I know personally.

[nitrogen]

An example of education system decline, since apparently at least one person doesn't believe me:

In the state where one of my teacher friends works, the statewide high school math curriculum currently consists of Algebra, Geometry, Algebra 2, Pre-calculus, and Calculus AB or BC. Advanced students can take Algebra as early as 7th grade, while struggling students take it as late as 10th grade. Soon, Algebra through Pre-calculus will be replaced with Math 1, Math 2, and Math 3, with Math 1 being mandatory for all 9th graders, Math 2 for 10th graders, and Math 3 for 11th graders. There are "honors" versions of each class available that differ little from the corresponding non-honors class.

This change, as it was explained to me, hurts both gifted students and struggling students. The gifted students are held back by as much as 3 years from where they could be in math, while struggling students are advanced regardless of competence.

[roel_v]

"I have heard from someone that there is a specific instance where students do not partake in an education that is optimal for every single of them" != "The education system, in at least some locations and some subjects, is indeed declining"

Just describing the current state of affairs is by definition insufficient to be able to say something about the evolution over time of the quality of said affairs.

[nitrogen]

Not over the past 100+ years, no, but between two years ago and two years from now, yes. Further, this isn't a change that is not "optimal for every single [one] of them," this is a change that is significantly suboptimal for the majority of students.

[roel_v]

May be, we don't know; if you have data or (somewhat) robust theories on why and how, please tell. My point was that your 'proof' wasn't proof at all for your stated premise. I suspect this will be hard for you, because I don't have rational reasons to believe that such a sudden drop-off is happening. I don't really know though, I'm just trusting on an abstract 'common sense' approach; the best I have in situation like this where objective measure are not available (to me).

Anyway please feel free to share your theories and data on why you think that over such a very short amount of time the level of education will take a sharp drop-off.

[glhaynes]

... and, in my experience, followed up with a comment about how "obviously shoveling money at the department of education doesn't fix anything."